U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says state Board of Education members did the right thing by raising the bar to earn a passing grade on MEAP tests.

Duncan on Wednesday released a statement on the plan, a day after the board voted 7-1 to raise the “cut scores” – the percentage of questions students must answer correctly to be deemed proficient on Michigan Educational Assessment Program and Michigan Merit Exam tests.

“I applaud Michigan for being honest with students on where they stand,” Duncan said. “Michigan’s education leaders are putting kids first by taking critical steps to help them compete in a global economy.”

Students can get as few as 40 percent correct on some tests and still meet the mark on the tests, which are used, in part, to meet federal No Child Left Behind requirements.

That prompted a national education advocacy group to say the state was “lying” to parents about how well their children were performing, noting that student were scoring far worse on a national test.